What Is the Surgical Treatment of Buccal Mucosa Squamous Cell Carcinoma?

Buccal mucosa cancer — squamous cell carcinoma of the cheek lining — requires careful surgical planning to achieve clear resection margins while avoiding extensive functional defects. The protocol defines margin targets, intraoperative assessment methods, and reconstruction options for the intraoral defect.

Treatment Approach

Management centres on surgical resection of the buccal mucosal lesion with intraoperative margin assessment to guide the extent of excision, followed by reconstruction of the intraoral defect — the complete margin criteria, resection algorithm, and reconstruction decision framework are in the full protocol.

Instant Access to Structured Evidence-Based Regimens

References

DOI: 10.1002/lio2.1081

Thirty-nine (85%) of the surgeons would resect the tumor with a mucosal margin of 10 mm and a deep margin of 10 mm.
When the head and neck surgeons were asked what clinical (macroscopic) tumor-free deep resection margin they would accept to prevent a through-and-through defect, 31 (67%) would accept a tumor-free margin ≤5 mm, 6 (13%) accept a tumor-free margin between 6 and 9 mm, and 9 (20%) would make a through-and-through defect if the tumor-free margin would be <10 mm.
To measure this tumor-free margin, 40 of the 46 (87%) surgeons would like to use intraoperative US.
The intraoral defect can be closed with a local flap or free flap, depending on the size of the defect.

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